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A TRIP TO THE MOON 



(Frorn the Earlh to the Moon) 



BY 



/ 

Dr. M. WILHELM MEYER 



REVISED AND TRANSLATED BY 



H. E. KREHBIEL. 



Copyright, 1891, by Mokkis Reno. 






CAULON PRESS. 20 VE6EY STREET, NEW YOR" 



A TRIP TO THE MOON 



(Frong the Earth to the Moon) 



BY 



Dr. M, WILHELM MEYER 



r 



REVISED AND TRANSLATED BY 



H. E- KREHBIEL, 




Copyright, 1891, by Morris Reno. 



A Trip to the Moon, 



FIRST ACT. 

INTRODUCTION. 

(The Curtain remains closed.) 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

We shall undertake in company to-day a journey to the moon, — an 
intellectual one, of course, for, alas, there are no means, and never will be 
any, whereby we might free these ponderous bodies of ours from the 
earth which continually drags us downwards, and let them soar up towards 
those shimmering stars which seem to beckon to us and tantalize us like so 
many enigmas of infinity. We can, therefore, make our advertised jour- 
ney to the nearest station in the universe only in our minds. Yet we shall 
soon be gratified by the discovery that the intellect, when it does not fol- 
low the will-o'-the-wisp of fancy, is a safe guide through these superter- 
restrial regions, and one to whom we may entrust ourselves with entire con- 
fidence. From point to point, with almost as much certainty as the wheels 
of the locomotive roll along the iron track, we shall proceed on our way 
until we find ourselves in the presence of a strange, celestial body; and 
then — now with the help of the painter — we shall behold with our bodily 
eyes the things which the infallible evidence of reason proves must be 
there. In order that we may remain clearly conscious that we are not 
making a fantastic journey, but only bringing before our eyes that which 
investigation can prove to exist upon that silent traveling companion of 
the earth, we shall proceed cautiously step by step, and begin the trip dur- 
ing one of those phenomenal occurrences which first prompted the human 
race to inquire into the doings of things outside this earth, — I mean an 
eclipse of the sun. Let it encourage us to lift our thoughts above this 
earth, that we may inquire into the obviously celestial cause of its appear- 
ance. 

(The Curtain opens.) 



Scene I. 

Solar Eclipse in the Yicinity of Berlin. 

(The scene represents a landscape near Berlin ; darkness Changing to morning twilight. 
The incidents described in the text, follow each other in order.) 

There may be some here who remem ber that memorable night of August 
19, 1887, when nearly all Berlin went out to those points in the suburbs of 
the city which the astronomers had designated as the most favorable for 
an observation of the phenomenon. Let us go back in fancy to that time 
and see whether from our view-point we shall not have better luck than 
the millions who stationed themselves in the region of totality and were 
cheated of their great expectations by the ill-humored weather clerk. 
Should the clouds become obstreperous here in our lecture room, we shall at 
least know who is to blame and have the privilege of filing complaint with 
the management, which was not possible when the celestial show made so 
colossal a fiasco on that occasion. 

Let us follow the spectacle from its beginning. The deep twilight 
which enshrouded the landscape gradually becomes brighter. There is 
yet nothing to herald the expected phenomenon. We are looking straight 
into the East; and in front of us, above the surface of the lake, the sun is 
to rise. There, indeed, the clouds are becoming flushed with color; sunrise 
announces itself as on the preceding days. Had not the astronomers 
predicted the event, no one would be able to suspect that so strange an 
apparition was to present itself in the spot where yesterday the sun arose 
as usual wrapped in his mantle of royal purple. 

The sun has not yet come up. Nature is still awaking; on all hands 
the movement of life begins; voices whisper and hum in the foliage, for 
everything that has life is preparing for the work of another day, which 
now appears to be approaching as it has dawned since the beginning of 
time. The lake, too, ruffles its surface to greet the fresh morning breeze; 
on the shores dew falls in crystal drops from the flowers which lift their 
heads and open their swelling chalices toward the coming light of day, 

What happens is incredible, unexampled; instead of the sun, a blood- 
red Q climbs up among the restless clouds. That is not the sun as 
we know him; never before did he present such an appearance. Neither 
is it the moon, for she could not shed so much light over the morning sky; 
it is a phenomenon so terrifying to the naif, unprepared observer, that to 
all peoples who do not fully occupy the plane of our modern civilization it 
signifies the overthrow of the laws of nature. There is nothing on earth 
which recurs with such constant regularity as the alternation of day and 
night, the rising and setting of the orb of day. Here, there has been an ex- 
ception to the rule. What could be more probable than that now every 
rule of nature and all the laws at the foundation of our existence should 
be abolished along with this first and most pervasive law ? 



The mysterious visitor rises higher above the horizon. The ( 
has already severed itself from the line of meeting between water and sky, 
and we perceive plainly that it is decreasing in size. Evidently the sun is 
being extinguished, and the day, scarcely begun, is already approaching its 
end. Now a few last flickering flashes of light and the strange visitor has 
disappeared. At once the whole aspect of nature is changed; darkness has 
returned — not the restful, assuring darkness of the quiet night, but an ashy, 
yellow, terrifying storm-shadow lies spread out over the landscape. 

But the strangest transformation has taken place in the sun itself. 
The orb of day, shining triumphantly with its beneficent light, has changed 
into a deeply black disk, surrounded by a silvery phenomenon that seems 
like a halo about the head of a martyr. It is the solar corona which is 
visible to the critical eye only during this moment of a total eclipse. Then 
a closer inspection discloses lurid tongues of flame which shoot out from 
the dark disk. These, too, are only visible in such moments and are called 
protuberances. 

The impression made by this spectacle, which is now playing before 
you in its graduated phases, upon the feelings of all creatures, is so 
profound that it pierces nature with a. momentary terror. Birds fly in 
flocks with frightened cries from the trees and scurry along the ground 
not knowing whither to go for refuge; horses start back in terror; dogs 
bark; even the flowers seem stricken with a panic of fear and close their 
chalices. The bosom of lifeless nature heaves with rapid breathings; a 
quick wind starts up, the genial warmth of the atmosphere is chilled and 
the temperature falls rapidly several degrees. Luckily for the terrified 
world this paroxysm of nature lasts but a few minutes. Again we behold a 
glowing crescent appear, turned in the opposite direction to the apparition 
that disappeared a moment ago and on the opposite side of the dark disk. 
Even while the crescent still appears so small, so great is the power of the 
coming sun that all the shadows are dispersed and all their terrifying collat- 
eral phenomena disappear. The solar corona, the protuberances, are 
extinguished. The yellow band spread along the horizon is gone. 
Gradually nature clothes herself in her customary hues. The sun climbs 
higher; the crescent, which meanwhile is beginning to disappear behind 
the clouds, grows larger and larger; more and more potently and serenely 
the sun sends forth his rays which now dance with joyous movement on 
the waves of the lake. The fearful phenomenon is conquered, the threat- 
ened danger averted without resulting harm; the old order of things is 
returned; day breaks, and, breathing a sigh of relief, earth's creatures go 
about their daily tasks. The spectacle which now we see, beautiful as 
it is, has become habitual, and habitual beauty no longer charms us. We 
will turn from it and draw the curtain. 

(The transformation curtain closes.) 

We ask ourselves : What is it that has taken place ? The terrible 
loses its terrors when we know its causes and are able to demonstrate with 



logical certainty that it threatens without performing evil. Let science 
give us this assurance. Science shall tell us what were the causes of this 
singular phenomenon. The answer was not easily given. Mankind 
required many centuries of ripest reflection and diligent observation of 
nature before the causes of solar eclipses were grounded. This is not the 
place to explain by what processes of reasoning, through what chain of 
thought the conclusion was reached that the moon caused the 
obscuration of the sun and how that obscuration was accomplished ; nor 
need we stop to inquire how mankind learned to predict the time of the 
eclipse at any desired point on the earth's surface. To do that is the task 
of mathematical geography. Let the statement suffice for to-day that 
solar eclipses have challenged peculiar attention from time immemorial in 
consequence of which records of their occurrence, generally coupled with 
some event of peculiarly terrifying puissance to humanity attributed to be 
the consequence of the eclipse, are to be found among the annals of all 
peoples. These records are of the greatest value to the astronomer of to- 
day in his study of the movements of the sun and moon back to those 
far-distant times. We shall content ourselves with presenting the results 
of those studies and now take our leave of this earth. In fancy let us place 
ourselves at a point in space near the earth that we may observe the doings 
of the celestial bodies which cause the phenomenon that we have just ob- 
served from our point of view on the earth. 

[The transformation curtain opens.] 

Scene 2. 

A Solar Eclipse from a Superterrestrial Point of View. 

(A starry sky profoundly dark. The events described succeed each other consecutively.) 

Above, below, on all sides of us empty space, Cimmerian night inter- 
woven with threads of light from the infinitely distant fixed stars. The 
proximity of the sun is announced by the mighty rays which penetrate 
the field of view from the right. Even the sun's rays, did they not fall 
directly into our eyes, would not discover themselves in space were there 
not everywhere, as in our atmosphere, particles of matter, which, when they 
approach our earth, appear to us as meteoric dust, shooting stars, or meteoric 
stones. Through the agency of this dust we are enabled to recognize the 
direction of the solar rays. Through them arises now the large terrestrial 
globe out of the lower depths ; we follow it in its cosmic motion around 
the sun which we, standing at a distance of about 80,000 miles, or about 
ten times the earth's diameter, can plainly observe. We have accomplished 
scarcely a third of our journey to the moon. The earth is still the most 
striking of all the bodies within our range of vision. It is known that 
this gigantic globe, in its wild race around the sun, whirls along at the 



rate of nearly 18-J miles in a single second, a rapidity of which we can 
scarcely form a conception, for it is a thousand times greater than the speed 
of our railway express trains. Yet you are privileged to make an estimate 
from the fact that, viewing the globe which hangs in space before you from 
the distance specified, you yet are able to perceive its motion ; for you can 
easily understand that the greater the distance from which we see amotion 
the less that motion seems to be. Besides this ascending motion the earth 
has another. It revolves upon its own axis, but from our observation 
point this motion is so slow as to be scarcely perceptible. The edge of the 
shadow stretches through Germany. There day is just breaking. Were we 
to take the trouble to follow the phenomenon closely, we should see that 
the light continually pushes forward toward the West, to France and Spain, 
and drives the shadows before it out on the bosom of the broad Atlantic. 

Meanwhile a stranger spectacle presents itself to our eyes. A shadow 
has fallen upon the earth. It is the shadow cast by the moon which, as yet 
unseen by us because of its distance, is climbing to the right through the 
rays of sunlight. 

The shadow spreads its surface over the earth and touches the line of 
day in the vicinity of Berlin, just as the sun rises above the Thuringian 
mountains. Here the rays of the sun which were just beginning to fall on 
this territory are again intercepted by the moon. In this place, therefore, 
an eclipse of the sun begins during sunrise, and here it is on the earth's 
surface that the eclipse has its beginning. Soon, thereafter, we see the 
shadow of the moon moving forward across the already illuminated por- 
tion of the earth. It crosses Berlin at a time when the city has not got far 
beyond the line of demarcation between day and night ; that is to say at 
Berlin the eclipse takes place soon after sunrise. The advancing shadow 
of the moon proceeds onward to Konigsberg, crosses the Russian frontier, 
moves past Wilna and so on between Moscow and St. Petersburg, into 
Asia, where it eludes our eyes. 

[The drop curtain falls.] 

I do not think, ladies and gentlemen, that any feature of the spectacle 
which we have viewed from this extraordinary point of observation can 
now seem obscure to you. You must have comprehended how the eclipse of 
the sun, which first we saw from the earth, was brought about — the moon, 
passing between the earth and sun, intercepted the latter's light. Now, 
since the moon in going around the earth moves faster than the earth in 
its rotation around the sun, the shadow of the moon hurries forward over 
the illuminated portion of the earth. Hence the eclipse of the sun lasts 
but a short time at any given point on the earth's surface, and then begins 
at another farther East, and so on along a path whose width and direction 
vary at each eclipse, since the orbit which the moon describes around the 
earth does not always remain the same, but is subject to certain changes 
which can be determined with the greatest exactness by a study of the solar 
eclipses as far back as we have recorded observations of the moon. 



Meanwhile the earth has disappeared in the vastness of universal 
space. We have turned aside in order to continue our journey. We want 
to get still farther away from her that we may study other peculiarities of 
the movements and relationships of the sun and moon. 

[The drop curtain rises.] 

Scene 3. 

Eclipse of the Moon in Space. 

(The earth appears as a full globe to the right ; to the left the moon as a globe one-quar- 
ter the size of the earth. The sun's rays fall from the right on both earth and moon.) 

The earth comes again within our vision, but looks smaller than be- 
fore because we have now reached a point about 120,000 miles distant from 
her. We are about half-way to the moon. We now perceive correctly the 
relative sizes of moon and earth. As we know, the moon is about one- 
quarter as large as the earth; its diameter is 2,160 miles. The solar rays 
falling upon the earth and moon from the same direction, we perceive both 
in the same phase. To the observers in space our earth looks like the 
moon whose shining crescent waxes and wanes as we notice every month 
in the case of the moon. 

Moving with greater celerity, the moon approaches the shadow of the 
earth and begins to enter it. The rays of sunlight are intercepted and 
withheld from it. There has been a reversal of relations and the moon is 
experiencing an eclipse of the sun. We call the phenomenon an eclipse 
of the moon. It can only happen when, as seen from the earth, the moon 
is exactly on the opposite side of the sun, since it is only in this direction 
that the shadow of the earth can be projected. In such an event there can 
only be full moon to us. If this does not seem to be the case now it is because 
we are not on the earth. If you will transport yourself back in imagina- 
tion, you will remember that a radiant disk, the illuminated half of the lunar 
globe, was turned toward the earth a moment ago, which now has become 
obscured in the shadow of the earth. When there is a total eclipse of the 
sun or the moon, the entire moon is covered by the shadow, while in the 
case of a terrestrial eclipse of the sun, only a comparatively small portion of 
the earth's surface is covered by the moon's shadow. The primary reason 
for this lies in the size of the earth; but it is also because the shadows cast 
by the celestial spheres into space are conical — they taper off to a point. 
Only the extreme point of the moon's tapering shadow falls upon the 
earth during an eclipse of the sun, while the shadowy cone projected by 
the earth is still two-and-a-half times the size of the moon at the moon's 
distance. 

(The transformation curtain falls.) 



But we must hasten on our journey and direct our attention exclusively 
to the moon, which we are now rapidly approaching. It can scarcely be nec- 
essary to add that the moon is a celestial body like our earth. We have 
seen her, a smaller sphere, floating like the earth through universal space. 
She is dark like the earth, and both bodies cast their shadows behind them 
away from the sun. If the moon moves sentiently through the universe, 
as the earth does, might not its surface harbor equally diversified forms of 
life? What is to hinder us from yielding to the conviction at the outset 
that all the millions of stars in the universe enjoy the same advantages as 
the earth which is so infinitesimal a portion of that universe ? Only that 
relic of mediaeval narrow-mindedness and illiberality which clings to the 
majority of us, and suggests to those who but seldom inquire into the 
things which are above this earth, that it is inconceivable and utterly be- 
wildering to imagine that throughout the universe there are creatures that 
are at least our equal in mental capacity and culture. It would be naught 
else than the incredible assumption of rude ignorance for man to believe 
himself alone and endowed with exclusive privileges in this wide universe, 
to conceive which created as only for his comfort and enjoyment is like 
fancying the great ocean whose waves lap the whole earth on all its sides 
existing for the sake of a single individual of those microscopic animals 
called Infusoria. Copernicus drove mankind from the belief that the earth 
was the centre of the material universe; much is yet wanting to persuade 
mankind to surrender the mad conceit that they are living in the spiritual 
centre of the universe. 

Let us adopt a more modest demeanor and be convinced that, almost 
in the Biblical sense which seeks transfigured creatures beyond the clouds, 
from those shimmering stars beings more perfect than we look towards 
us; beings on whose celestial vault our earth, with all its smiling and 
weeping inhabitants, shrinks into a lost point of light. In the joyous ex- 
pectation of finding another earth let us hasten toward the moon. 

i^The transformation curtain rises.) 

Scene 4. 

The Mountains of the Moon. 

(A portion of the moon's surface illuminated from the left, so that at first only a narrow 
crescent with long mountain shadows becomes visible. In the course of the lecture, the 
line of light moves slowly to the right. ) 

Our present observation point is still about 4,800 miles distant from 
the surface of the moon; that is to say, we have yet about the fiftieth part 
of our journey before us. To this proximity an observer on the earth may 
attain by observing the moon under the most favorable atmospheric con- 
ditions through a telescope magnifying fifty times. Our present method 



10 

of study has an advantage over that pursued in an observatory, in that we 
are not disturbed either by clouds or unfavorable states of the air, and be- 
sides can observe in a few moments all the phases of illumination which in 
nature require a number of days. 

At the first glance we are struck with the strange outline of this 
celestial body. We see that indubitably the moon has mountains and 
valleys, and wide plains like the earth, and that the mountains show a mul- 
titude of shapes and jagged clefts. Yonder chain of mountains, for instance 
which throws its long and jagged shadow across the plain to your right, is 
obviously and characteristically like certain mountain chains on earth; for 
this reason, too, it has been named Caucasus. Now another farther down 
to the right is lighting up; some of its highest peaks are already gleaming 
in the sunlight, while the deep valley is still shrouded in nocturnal gloom. 
On this highest peak of the lunar Alps — so these mountains are called — 
one could at this moment see the sun rise. A mighty cross valley is seen 
in this rugged region, that gigantic furrow which a cannon ball seems to 
have ploughed straight through the mountains. Simultaneously another 
chain, acontinuation of the Caucasian, is reflecting the light more and more; 
it has been called the Apennine. These three chains, which join each other 
and form something like a semi-circle, surround a vast plain, the so-called 
Rainy Sea, or in Latin Ma?-e Imbrium. This plain, too, is diversified with 
strange formations which lift themselves above the surface like great 
rings. Obviously they strongly resemble the volcanic craters of our 
earth, and because of this they are called lunar craters, or, when they en- 
close a larger territory, ring mountains. Yet there is an essential difference 
between terrestrial and lunar craters to which I shall recur later. I will 
add that the two smaller craters, low down and to the extreme left, are 
called Eudoxus and Aristotle, the one in the middle and to the right, above 
Caucasus, Aristyllus, and that other extensive ring mountain whose jagged 
walls cast long shadows across the level face of the inner plain, just to the 
right of the cross-valley of the Alps, has been dedicated to Plato. To en- 
able you to compare the size of these mountains with those on the earth, 
let me say that the diameter of this lunar crater, Plato, is about seventy- 
five miles. The highest peak of its ring mountains is about 8,900 feet 
above the surrounding level, considerably lower than the peaks of our 
earthly Alps. Yet there are several mountains in the moon which equal 
in height the tallest of our mountains. With these facts in mind we can 
picture how these ring mountains would look to a terrestrial observer who 
chanced to be in the centre of the crater. He would see himself in the 
middle of a vast plain stretching out in all directions to the horizon. 
Only in the faint blue of the distance would he see a seemingly low ridge 
of hills, completely surrounding the plain — the ring-like wall of the 
crater. Such a view, you will perceive at once, would be very different 
from that which would present itself to the gaze of one placed in the 
centre of an earthly crater. 



11 

There are other features presented by a view of this celestial world 
very different from those to which we are accustomed. The flat plains like 
that which has been called Mare Imbrium, of which there are several on 
the moon's surface, are certainly not watery seas, but solid surfaces 
covered with innumerable irregularities; not a trace of water or of mist 
rising from water in the shape of clouds can be discovered on the moon. 
The configuration of the mountains and all other details appear always 
sharply outlined, so sharply, indeed, that the phenomenon could never be 
reproduced on earth because of the imperfect transparency of the terres- 
trial atmosphere and its floating clouds. 

The map of this new world is spread out before our eyes almost 
daily; we can study it more closely and thoroughly than the formation of 
our terrestrial world, which we are unable to inspect from a bird's-eye 
view. We are therefore compelled laboriously to prepare our maps. 

We have just seen the sun rise higher over our lunar landscape; the 
shadows of the mountains have grown shorter and shorter, until many of 
them have disappeared as a consequence of the rays of the sunlight falling 
vertically upon the mountains. Let us take a mental leap through time of 
about fourteen days. Heretofore we have had a waxing moon in its first 
quarter ; now we have a waning moon in its last quarter. The rapidity 
with which we are able to make the transformation demonstrates most 
plainly how completely the aspect of a lunar landscape must change dur- 
ing the various phases of the moon. The sun is now setting on the 
regions over which, in the waxing first quarter of the moon, we saw it 
arise. The day, that is to say, the period during which the sun shone 
continuously, is therefore fourteen times the duration of our day, as we 
can see beyond peradventure with the aid of the telescope. 

Let us pause briefly before continuing our journey, the next stage of 
which will land us upon the surface of the moon itself. 

(The principal curtain closes.) 



12 

Scene 5. 

(Lunar Landscape in the vicinity of Aristarchus and Herodotus.) 
(For the present the curtain remains closed.) 

After what has been shown, ladies and gentlemen, you will easily 
comprehend that, guided by the varying shadows cast by the irregularities 
on the surface of the moon, it is possible to acquire such accurate knowl- 
edge of the configuration of that surface that the eye, trained in the laws 
of perspective and delineation, can so change the lines of vision that a 
new picture be constructed to conform to the new spectacle which would 
present itself to an observer stationed on the surface of the moon. The 
picture which is now disclosed to you is such a representation, and is de- 
signed to produce the illusion of a visit to the moon. 

[The curtain parts. ] 

We have not reached the surface, but are hovering a few miles above 
it in order to overlook a large stretch of territory through the agency of a 
bird's-eye view. 

The most striking features of the landscape are two large ring 
mountains of which the one toward the left in the background is called 
Aristarchus, the other Herodotus. The interior of the latter is level, almost 
as level as the bottom of a lake, and a mighty rift, which continues down 
to the foreground, opens in this plain like the mouth of a river. Vast 
numbers of these furrows or ditches are found on the moon's surface; 
350 of them are indicated on Dr. Schmidt's great map of the moon. 

We are on the moon ! How different the impression created by 
this strange world, now that we can examine it closely, than a moment 
ago when we had only a general view of it ! Bleak deserts, lifeless wilder- 
nesses of mountains lit up by a singularly garish light, terrify us even 
though the magnitude of the shapes is imposing. Contrasts of which the 
earth knows nothing here reign universal. Blinding light rests upon the 
mountain walls turned toward the sun; while the deep valleys below re- 
main shrouded in an almost impenetrable night. No mild daylight, like 
that reflected for us by the blue vault of heaven, forms the gradual 
transition from light to shadow. 

Whence come these contradictions which have robbed the landscape of 
its gracious and picturesque charm, and spread the oppressive hues of death 
over the face of the moon ? Here on the earth we know that it is the 
atmosphere which acts as a beneficent mediator between light and darkness. 
The air is not a nothing; it consists of an infinite number of tiny 
particles which reflect light amongst themselves, and thus produce the 
diffused glow of daylight and the blue sky. This atmosphere, then, must 
be wanting on the moon. 



13 

Many things conspire to confirm this fact. Every transparent body 
is known to possess the property of turning light from its direct course ; 
so, too, the atmosphere; to which is due the fact, for instance, that when, 
according to geometrical laws, the sun is just set, that is to say, its upper 
edge just touches the horizon, it seems to us still to be hovering entire 
above the horizon, the lower edge of the disk scarcely touching the earth. 
The rays of the sun thus pass in a considerable curve through the air 
around a portion of the terrestrial globe. 

If the moon had an atmosphere, we would be able to detect a similar 
phenomenon even from the distant earth. In her nightly journey through 
the stellar host, she often hides one of the stars from our view. If there 
were such a refraction of light as I have described by the atmosphere of the 
moon, the nice measurements of our astronomers would necessarily disclose 
the fact in the movement of the star as it approaches the edge of the moon. 
This, however, is not the case, and it follows as a certainty that the moon 
has no denser atmosphere than that which remains in the receiver of an air 
pump after exhaustion. That no life, the first condition of which is air 
and water, could exist under such circumstances is obvious. In a space 
filled with such rarefied air water would at once be dissipated. 

Hence the lifeless waste which spreads itself over this landscape; 
hence, too, the startling contrasts of illumination which would soon make 
a sojourn on this celestial body intolerable for us, even if it were possible. 

[The drop curtain falls.] 

Here, then, we did not find what we sought when we started out on 
our journey through the universe, our hearts beating high with the hope 
of meeting brother creatures whose inquiring spirit should eagerly greet 
our own. The moon is wasted and dead, and reason, which has so safely 
guided us thus far, tells us that no living creature can exist without air and 
water, unless the conditions of life are so different on the moon that all 
understanding of that world and all speculation concerning it are denied 
to us. 

Other conditions of life presuppose the dominion of other natural 
forces. But it is a fact, confirmed by a thousand startling discoveries in 
the heavens, that wherever we can detect the operation of natural laws, 
even in the deepest depths of the universe, the laws are identical with those 
in operation on the earth. 

This discovery of the universal validity of nature's laws inspires a 
beneficent and comforting feeling; we are all citizens of a common govern- 
ment. The spirit of order and beauty which this government stamped up- 
on our earth reigns throughout celestial space, and therefore we have the 
assurance that no unexpected and revolutionary interference with the 
existing order of things is possible from without; for individuals who are 
subject to a common law under well-ordered circumstances do not war 
upon each other; on the contrary they support each other by an exchange 
of mutual benefits. 



14 

Yet, among the laws of nature, there is one which in our shortsight- 
edness we are prone to think, because of its implacable consistency, exists 
only for our torment. It is the law, an exception to which has never yet 
been found, that everything that is born must die. Even in the vast uni- 
verse which we are studying, this law has unrestricted validity. Stars are 
created and pass away, and if we were able to comprehend millions of 
years in a single moment, we should see the stars falling from the firma- 
ment like autumn leaves from the trees. The moon has paid its tribute to 
this law ; she has died and remains but a wandering corpse among the 
stars of heaven. But let us strive to learn more of her nature, and to that 
end seek another region on her surface. 

[The transformation curtain rises.] 

Scene 6. 

(Landscape in the vicinity of Laplace.) 

At length we are arrived on the moon, and from a lofty peak are 
viewing a region of singular grandeur. We are on the edge of that 
Rainy Sea to which some time ago I directed your attention ; the middle 
cone is called Cape Laplace. It juts from the point of a peninsula into 
the plain of the sea, and separates from a larger body a smaller limb 
which has been named Sinus Iridum, or Rainbow Bay. 

How does it come, you well may ask while gazing upon this wildly 
rugged scene, that the astronomers are able to assert, with such positive- 
ness, that the moon is dead ? The layman, unfamiliar with the processes 
of astronomical thought, will scarcely accept as incontrovertible the proofs 
of the absence of any considerable atmosphere adduced by the laws of 
optics. Would it not be well to look for signs of life i Analogies pro- 
vided by our planet give us a starting-point. On the earth there are 
immense tracts of country which lie desolate and waste like the lunar 
regions that we have just been observing. The desert of Sahara is an 
instance. Adjoining such tracts are others which are covered with vast 
forests and meadow lands, whose colors change with the changing 
seasons. Across the prairies move tremendous flocks of buffaloes, horses 
and other herding animals. At other points men build great cities and 
heaven-storming edifices, or mighty armies move toward each other to 
fight out the quarrels which, alas, are still unavoidable. Equipped with 
the means of astronomical study in use to-day, an observer placed at a 
distance of about 240,000 miles (which is the distance between the earth 
and the moon) could see all these conditions and movements on our earth. 
But we see nothing of the kind on the moon. On her surface there are 
no differences in color between one locality and another, no changes of 
color, everything on its surface lies silent and immobile; but a very few 



15 

instances of changes in configuration, of avalanches and violent up- 
heavals caused by subterranean forces which are certainly not conducive 
to life, have been observed; and all of these have not been verified. No 
buildings, no relics of civilization are to be found on the moon. The task 
set for this smaller world has been performed; it is at rest. 

[The transformation curtain falls. ] 

Happily, in every reflective mind, thoughts of destruction lead over 
to thoughts of joyous, energetic growth. Where death is, there also is 
new development, a resurrection even in the earthly and material sense, if 
not of the individual, at least of a striving and achieving generation. 

Scene 7. 

Lunar Landscape in the Light of the Earth. 

(As the curtain rises a lunar landscape is discovered, illuminated by a pale, bluish 

earth-light; the earth, represented by a full disk, is shining down from the sky. Soon, 

thereafter, mountain peaks in the background are lighted up by the sun's rays. This 
illumination gradually extends itself till the close of the scene.) 

Upon these lifeless fields the earth has risen — the earth, our sentient, 
verdure-clad place of habitation! The starting-place of our daring jour- 
ney hangs glowing before us to invite us to return to our beautiful, cheery 
home ! 

Is it not a strange thought that we live up yonder, clinging to one of 
those millions of revolving balls, and that creatures like ourselves, sup- 
posing them to live upon a sister-world, perceive nothing more of our earth, 
filled with joyous a-nd wretched inhabitants, than a ray of light from a 
star, sailing through the infinite ocean of space and driving restlessly 
toward an unknown port ? To what an infinitesimally tiny size does every- 
thing shrink, the inestimable natural wealth of our planet with all its mar- 
vels which uncounted generations of investigators working thousands of 
years will fail to exhaust! Already on the nearest of our companions in 
space all this is reduced to a shining disk on which nothing save the un- 
certain outlines of the continents can be recognized. How many marvels, 
how many creatures struggling after happiness, are harbored on all the 
stars above us ? 

Scarcely has the earth come within the range of our vision than all 
our thoughts return to her; after all we are our mother's children and cling 
with an unconquerable love to our precious clod! 

Just now the earth is illuminating the moon. It is full-earth. The 
relations between earth and moon, in respect of illumination, are exactly 
analogous. When we have new-moon, the moon has full-earth, and the 
earth-disk, with four times the diameter of the moon, pours a much more 
refulgent light upon the moon than the latter does upon the slumbering 



16 

earth. This earth-shine on the moon is sometimes reflected back to the 
earth ; when the crescent moon is still very narrow, we see the whole of the 
moon's disk faintly illuminated; it is the earth-shine in which we see this 
landscape bathed. 

How weak is this twice-reflected light compared with that of the sun 
which we have just seen gild the highest peaks of the distant lunar 
mountains! With particular distinctness the violent contrasts of light and 
shadow, caused by the want of atmosphere, appear now. In a terrestrial 
landscape, even so desolate a mountain region as this, the sunrise would pre- 
sent a vastly different picture; the sky would long since have become blue, 
and sent down enough light that even the portions not yet directly illumi- 
nated by the sun would be light, and consequently form a less sharp 
contrast with the mountain peaks glowing in the morning sun. 

The spectacle of the sunlight descending lower and lower in the al- 
most pitch-black valleys recalls a picture which we saw when in the course 
of our journey we cast a glance in passing, as through a telescope, upon 
our planet's companion. Then, near the line of demarcation in the moon's 
phase, we saw a few points of light shining out of the general darkness. 
We are now in the vicinity of the line of light, and the fact that we are on 
the surface of the moon makes no change in the picture, except the direc- 
tion of the lines of sight — the perspective which can always be fixed in 
accordance with geometrical laws. 

Again we shall permit fourteen days to go by as we did while still 
distant from the moon, in order to observe the change of scenery in 
the meantime, and we will take advantage of the speeding time to change 
our location. 

(The transformation curtain falls.) 

While the two-fold change in time and cpace is making, let me recur 
to those singular formations to be found scattered all over the surface of 
our satellite, which give it a physiognomy wholly different from that of 
the earth, — I refer to the lunar craters. The best map of the moon ever 
made, on which Julius Schmidt labored almost uninterruptedly for more 
than twenty-five years, contains 32,856 of these craters; yet Dr. Schmidt 
asserts that his map by no means shows all of the craters visible to us, and 
that if we were to magnify the half of the moon turned toward us 600 
times, we should be able to count about 100,000 of them. Although the 
first superficial glance of the lunar craters shows a strong resemblance to 
the earth's volcanoes, this vast number, coupled with other very material 
differences, has staggered astronomers and geologists, and of late years a 
number of plausible hypotheses have been advanced to explain the origin 
of these extraordinary formations. These explanations are widely differ- 
ent, but we lack time to go into them minutely to-day; we shall have to 
content ourselves in the course of this brief lunar promenade with a few 
hints. 



17 

Besides these craters, we find mountain chains in the moon which 
bear a comparison to those of our earth. Their origin is therefore more 
easily understood. Like the earth, the moon gradually cooled off and be- 
came solid, and while cooling it shrunk; wrinkles and furrows were 
formed upon it as upon the face of an old man. Those great clefts and 
furrows, too, which pursue their way straight across the surface, unmindful 
of mountains or plains, are probably the products of this aging process. 
A phenomenon that remains clothed in mystery, however, are those 
radiating lines of light which are visible only at full-moon, and cover 
the greater part of the moon's surface. Unfortunately we must pass 
quickly over these intensely interesting subjects in order to pause again on 
the surface at the time of a most extraordinary occurrence before leaving 
it forever on our homeward journey. 

(The transformation curtain rises.) 

Scene 8. 

Solar Eclipse of the Moon. 

(Another spot on the moon's surface. The disk of the earth hangs darkened in the starry 
sky, showing only a narrow crescent near the horizon. The stars rise gradually upon 
the landscape, finally also the sun. Further phenomena are indicated by the text.) 

A while ago, stopping at a place on the edge of the moon and looking 
westward, we had the rising sun back of us and the full-earth disk before 
us; now stationed at a different place Ave are looking towards the East 
and awaiting the rising of the sun before us. Fourteen days having sped, 
meanwhile our planet appears as new-earth; only a narrow crescent on the 
lower limb turned toward the sun is illuminated. Let me recall to 
your minds the fact with which you are all familiar, that the moon always 
turns the same side toward us, and that its back can never be known to us. 
Hence the earth, as seen from the moon, must always remain in the same 
spot on the horizon, and neither rises nor sets as do all the other celestial 
bodies. To an observer in the centre of the lunar disk as we see it, the 
earth stands always at the zenith of his sky, that is, straight above his head; 
to an observer, standing as we now stand on its edge, the earth appears 
always near the horizon as we see it before us. Another circumstance, 
suggestive of strange speculations, follows as a result of this singular 
politeness on the part of our satellite in continually turning her face 
toward us; the inhabitants of the other side of the moon, if there were 
such, could never see our earth though to them she is the nearest and 
apparently the largest celestial body, around which their globe, held by 
unswervable bands, ceaselessly and endlessly revolves. Thus nature often 
piques the curiosity of her students by concealing what is nearest in a 
network of action. 



18 

The stars, not bound like the earth, move upwards from the horizon 
and the sun approaches. We are witnesses of a lunar sunrise. How 
different from a sunrise on the earth! No twilight precedes it ; the dark 
night flashes at once into glaring day. The sky, even in the daytime, 
which has now set in, remains as black as the blackest of our night-skies, 
and all the stars remain visible. 

Upon every portion of the moon the garish light of the sun pours 
down pitilessly and uninterruptedly for the space of fourteen terrestrial 
days, without the amelioration of a moving atmosphere. Then follows 
deep night of the same duration, while the awful cold of space, estimated 
at between 200 and 300 degrees below zero, spreads over the scene and 
congeals its every part. 

What awful contrasts, inconceivable and inimical to every form of 
life! 

By simply omitting a few factors, how fundamentally different, the 
cosmic picture which nature has drawn for us here! 

But let us watch the things which are taking place in the moon's 
sky. The sun, meanwhile, has climbed higher, but the earth retains her 
old position near the horizon. The edge of the glowing disk touches the 
terrestrial globe, which is wrapped in night, and a ruddy spot answers to the 
kiss. Morning is dawning on the earth. The rays of the sun are caught 
up and diffracted by the earth's atmosphere, and color its layers of 
clouds. Now the sun begins to disappear behind the earth's disk; it is 
partly concealed, and we observe the same phenomena that on the earth ac- 
company an eclipse of the sun. Seen from our present station, the earth 
conceals the sun. On the earth it is the moon. While, in the case of a ter- 
restrial eclipse of the sun, the shadow of the moon falls upon the earth, 
now the shadow of the earth falls upon the moon; but, as the shadow of the 
earth is larger than that of the moon, it 'enshrouds the moon completely. 
In such a case we on the earth behold a total eclipse of the moon. Dur- 
ing the phenomenon as seen from the moon, .there takes place an eclipse 
of the sun of which we are now witnesses. 

The sun has retreated wholly behind the earth's disk, and the red 
rays of the terrestrial region of twilight have acquired such potency that 
they throw a magical hue across the lunar landscape. It is the only 
moment in the monotonous variation of the moon's astronomical rela- 
tions in which the contrasts are softened, and lovelier, more assuring hues 
tinge the mountainous wilderness and delight the human eye for a brief 
space. This amiable light comes from the earth, the moon's astral 
mother. Through the only agency of communication that is still left to 
her, space-piercing light, she sends a last greeting to her only daughter 
lost so early in death, and pours out upon her a flood of the rosy light of 
life and love. 

A solar eclipse, which terrifies all nature when seen on the earth, in 
this other world, long since wrapped in funereal cerements, appears as a 



19 

comforting memory of lovelier days, which doubtless once sent pulsating 
life through this desolate country, and wreathed its ragged cliffs with 
flowering vines. 

We will carry with us this gracious retrospection, as we set out upon 
our return journey to the earth, to prepare for which a brief pause will be 
gratefully accepted. 

(The curtain closes.) 



THIRD ACT, 
Scene 9. 

Lunar Eclipse in the Highlands. 

(The main curtain opens. A highland landscape. The sun has just set. Afterglow. 
Later, moon-rise and eclipse. ) 

We are safely returned to the home assigned to us in the universe — 
we are back on this earth. We have chosen as a landing-place, however, a 
spot which, so far as we can see, is in all respects most like the nature of 
the moon of all the terrestrial regions. We are amongst the wild crags of 
the Highlands. No stunted bush, no blade of grass, no dry moss clinging 
to bald rocks — the hardiest vegetation can not flourish here. Of all the host 
of witnesses which living nature sends forth, only the strong-winged eagle 
and all-subduing man venture to ascend to these bleak and rigid heights. 
It is the region of perpetual snow, and this has been blown into the 
mighty mountain furrows where it forms itself into a greenly glistering 
glacier whose icy mass reaches down to the foreground. The frigid air is 
much rarer than that of the valley below. The lungs feel this atmos- 
pheric poverty and are called upon to perform increased labor. All these 
features duplicate as nearly as can be done, the corresponding phenomena 
on the moon's surface. Yet what a measureless difference! How surpass- 
ingly beautiful is this picture in comparison with the lunar regions which 
resemble it in configuration and physical constitution! It is the illumina- 
tion which accomplishes the main feature of the difference so much to the 
advantage of our earth. The rosy rays of the setting sun gild the white 
shroud that has been spread over these mountain giants, and penetrate it 
with warmth. It is as if the sun wished at the close of each day to pro- 
claim that everything shall again wake to new life; that far into the 
incalculable future there shall be only a flux and reflux of vital forces; 
that Winter, through infinity of time, shall be followed by blooming 
Spring. The rocks which lie buried under this snow hide in their hearts 
the remains of past ages, when dense forests of palms grew luxuriantly in 



20 

this now desolate spot. There is flux and reflux, too, on the surface of the 
earth in the course of millions of years ; where there is a mountain there 
shall be a valley ; then here, too, there may be a resurrection of life. 

For the time being the glow becomes fainter and fainter. The pnle 
moon rises and pours her pallid light across the barren region. The pic- 
ture has now acquired a resemblance to a landscape on the moon. 

We are soon to be witnesses of an eclipse of the moon, that is, we 
shall observe from the earth the same phenomenon of which we were wit- 
nesses at our last stopping-place on the moon. We noticed then that, so 
soon as the sun was hidden behind the earth, the moon became over- 
spread with a coppery hue, the shadow of the earth. We may now see this 
shadow pushing forward over the lunar disk. It is a remarkable feature 
of the phenomenon, noticeable here as it was on the sun at the time of the 
eclipse, that the boundary line of the shadow always preserves the same 
curvature. The effect is as if a reddish, transparent disk about two-and-a- 
half times its diameter were drawn over the moon. The change in the 
moon's phases during the progress of an eclipse is entirely different from 
the ordinary change. This attracted the attention of the wise men of an- 
cient Greece, and Aristarchus was the first to utilize the discovery to prove 
the globular shape of the earth, for it is obvious that under these circum- 
stances only a globe could cast a circular shadow. 

We have watched the progress of the eclipse until now it is total. 
The red glow, which, while we were on the moon, we saw spread over its 
surface, is still reflected back, though feebly, to the earth. But this pale 
light cannot delight us; it is interpenetrated with the element of mystery, 
and an eclipse of the moon always made a profound impression upon the 
mind of primitive man, though it seemed less awful and foreboding 
than an eclipse of the sun. 

We must not part company under the influence of this impression, 
but will seek another region of the earth of volcanic origin. 

(The transformation curtain falls.) 

The interval may be wisely spent in a brief comparative study of 
the constitution of the moon's surface and volcanic activities on the earth. 
On the surface of the earth, which has 24 times the superficial area of the 
visible portion of the moon, there are about 300 volcanoes which are 
active now or have been active within the last 300 years. Let us multiply 
the number by ten, to make it cover all the natural configurations which 
can be identified as extinct volcanoes and all those hidden by the ocean. 
Now it is a simple calculation that if the volcanoes on the surface of the 
moon were as sparse as those on the earth there would be only 100 of 
them. Instead there are 100,000. If the lunar craters were real volca- 
noes in our sense of the word, the volcanic activity on the moon would 
be inconceivably great ; of this there is no incontestable evidence. More- 
over, it is remarkable that the forces which formed the other mountains in 



21 

the moon do not seem to have operated in an essentially different manner 
than on earth, since the shape and extent of the lunar mountain chains 
are entirely comparable with those of the earth ; this, however, is not the 
case with the craters. The relation of the craters to the mountain chains 
on the moon is wholly different from that on earth. From a geological 
point of view, it is scarcely possible to accept a volcanic origin for the 
majority of the ring mountains, while there is no doubt that many smaller 
craters had such an origin and some of them are perhaps still in active 
operation. The small crater Linne on the edge of the Mare Serenitatis is 
a case in point. It seems probable that it has been in eruption since 1850, 
whereby its shape was materially changed. 

A significant argument concerning the origin of the lunar craters, 
as I have already remarked, rests on their external shape and the relation 
between their width and height. 

A glance at the representation now to appear, of a volcanic region 
on the earth, will disclose the great difference between terrestrial and 
lunar volcanoes. 

(The transformation curtain rises.) 

Scene 10. 

Sunset in the Indian Oeean. 

(Landscape on the volcanic island of St. Paul. The sea in the background reflecting the 

slowly sinking sun.) 

We are in the neighborhood of an extinct volcano on the island of St. 
Paul, in the Indian Ocean, midway between Africa and Australia. Here, 
too, we are concerned with a kind of ring mountain, whose walls, for the 
greater part, have fallen and been swallowed up by the sea. We shall leave 
it to the testimony of eye-sight to determine how much this terrestrial crater 
resembles those on the moon; but in parting company, let us turn again 
to the sun, which has occupied our attention so often since we set out upon 
our journey through space. He is sinking toward the horizon and soon 
will set. His golden disk is reflected in the face of the ocean which to- 
day is unusually tranquil. Let me embrace this favorable opportunity to 
direct attention to a most remarkable phenomenon which has only lately 
come into notice. We observe that the reflection of the sun in the water 
is oval, like an ellipse, though if reflected by a perfectly level surface, it 
ought to be perfectly round like the sun itself. This variation of the re- 
flection of the sun in the sea, from the shape of the sun itself floating 
above it, is one of the most obvious and incontestable proofs that the sur- 
face of the earth, and therefore of the sea, is not flat but curved. Only in 
a reflecting surface which is curved downward, as viewed from our station, 
could the reflection of the sun show the variation which we are observing. 



22 

Let the sun, which at the outset of our observation we saw arise 
under such terrifying circumstances, sink to his rest. Unmindful of that 
seemingly awful occurrence, the all-powerful governor of the universe has 
pursued his journey. Without loss of brilliancy, beneficent and gracious as 
ever, he has poured his vitalizing rays upon the revolving earth. Now his 
day's work is done, and he takes leave of us to bring happiness to other 
inhabitants of our richly-blessed planet who have been aroused from re- 
freshing sleep by his rays, while his farewell greeting beckons us to rest. 
Everlasting revolution, everlasting change! Wherever there is sunrise 
there is also sunset. But the reverse is also true. On whomsoever 
not only this celestial orb, but also the sun of good fortune, sets on 
him at another time, in another place will it rise again in pristine glory. 
The sun is the embodiment of all our happiness and the welfare of all the 
vast universe over which he holds sway. It is the source of all joy. And it 
will never be extinguished! 



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